


Shorter Than Expected

by pogch4mp



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, GLaDOS cares for Chell and all that, Gen, Getting Jumped, Guns, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Portal 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23105305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pogch4mp/pseuds/pogch4mp
Summary: You've got your short, sad life leftThat's what I'm counting onChell returns to The Shed every month. Same day, same time, and GLaDOS always watches. It was always the same for a year-and-a-half. But not anymore.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 89





	Shorter Than Expected

**Author's Note:**

> i had a vague idea for angst so here's this thing

_"It's been fun. Don't come back,"_

_GLaDOS watched as Chell went upwards, out of Her chamber. She heard the two robots scampering away to do their assignment as She waited for Chell to get to the first half of the newly-instated Aperture Science Departing Surprise Program℠. Partly because She simply wanted to see Chell's reaction, mostly because the elevator didn't have a camera while the newly-instated Aperture Science Departing Surprise Rooms™ did._

_She opened the video feed for surprise_01- formerly stairway_27- and waited, staring at the back of the four little turrets' heads._

_The elevator emerged, then slowed to a stop. A vague flicker of shock crossed Chell's face before she assumed a defensive position and her eyes started darting around the room, much like when faced with a new test or complication. She looked as though she was about to simply hit the turrets in their legs when they started._

_"Do Do Do Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Do_

_Do-Do"_

_Chell hesitated and pulled back._

_"Doo-Do_

_Do Do..."_

_The elevator went up again and GLaDOS quickly switched to surprise_02 and waited. Chell appeared once more, looking understandably bewildered._

_"Cara bella, cara mia bella_

_Mia bambina, oh Chell"_

_Chell slowly rose past the chamber watching the turrets intently and, perhaps it was wishful thinking, but GLaDOS thought she might be smiling._

_Once Chell emerged from surprise_02, GLaDOS switched at last to entrance_04 and winced ever so slightly as the feed's brightness enhanced substantially. Chell's elevator came and the camera swiveled to the interior of The Shed to watch her. GLaDOS opened the door. Hesitantly, Chell exited the facility and out into the barren wheat-fields of the surface. GLaDOS slammed the door behind her and then heard a clunk. GLaDOS turned._

_ATLAS and P-Body were behind Her, and, on the ground, lay the cube She'd asked them to retrieve. It was more of a... keepsake than anything. But in a jolt of impulse, She opened the door outside and directed the two robots to throw the cube into the elevator chamber, now just a glorified vacuum to the surface. ATLAS grabbed the cube and tossed it in. It zipped away._

_And popped right back out on entrance_04. Chell stumbled back to avoid getting hit by it and stared at the door, slammed shut once more._

_She stood by the shed, taking in her surroundings and brushing ash off the cube, for maybe two hours. Finally, she took a deep breath, picked the cube up, and started east-bound._

* * *

The eighteenth. Noon to two.

The robots and turrets knew this as their designated off time, where GLaDOS was sure to be off their back once a month. They also knew it as a time where She should not be bothered. ATLAS stumbled into Her chamber out of curiosity once and P-Body found them at the re-assembler.

GLaDOS knew this- in Her calendar- as Her Human Preternatural Behavioral Anomaly Study period.

For those two hours each month, Chell would return to The Shed.

Chell came to The Shed that September eighteenth in faded blue jeans and a pale grey sweatshirt that she had gained from whatever society she had discovered. She pulled open The Shed's door. It was heavy, but it opened. She looked around the inside. As usual, it was completely barren, except a gaping hole in the ground. She took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and held it over the circular gap. The vacuum turned on and sucked the sheet down, down, down through the Aperture Facility.

And into GLaDOS' chamber. GLaDOS used one of Her claws to retrieve it

Chell had started the tradition of notes with a simple one, the first time she had come.

"Hello," Was all it had read. GLaDOS, unaware, let it float down into Her chamber undiscovered until nearly a week later.

The next time it was a bit longer; "I didn't realize until a few days ago that that was the first time I'd actually talked to you,"

Then; "I don't suppose you'll respond to any of these. That's fair. But last time you actively sucked down my note, so I'm assuming I'm not entirely unwelcome,"

They continued, one a month, for exactly one-and-a-half years. Chell would come, drop the note-them getting progressively longer-, and sit outside until two o'clock, at which point she'd stand up, maybe wave vaguely at the shed, then leave. GLaDOS never responded or, in fact, gave any sign of even really caring past not burning the note in front of her. But Chell still came, every month, even in the pouring rain.

Stubborn. High Tenacity.

GLaDOS read the note.

"Hello. I supposed maybe you'd like to know how I'm doing. If you don't, sucker's luck because I'm going to tell you anyway. I guess you could just not read it, actually. Anyways, Ordell is doing great. I told you about Ordell, right? If I didn't, it's the town I found. It used to be Detroit. I managed to get a house instead of an apartment this month. Finally, considering it wasn't even an apartment, it's just an old hotel. I've also kind of started a business. Actually, I didn't start it. This little girl, Ana, started it. I made her some lemonade because I hadn't had it in a while and she was 'helping' me move in. Apparently, they don't do lemonade anymore, and Ana went around telling everyone about how good it is. I never thought that entrepreneurship entailed simultaneously owning three blenders until now. It brings in money, and it's more fun than doing inventory, so I'll take it. I hope you're having fun. Or maybe I shouldn't, because you have an interesting idea of fun. Have a good- hopefully relatively murderless- day,"

She nodded at it and folded it, placing it gingerly in a storage crate behind a panel, where She kept all of her notes. Then She went back to the surveillance. Chell was sitting cross-legged outside of the shed, wheat brushing her back. Just like always. (Except for four months ago, on which Chell's note stated that she knew GLaDOS was watching her the whole time because of the little red light, so GLaDOS didn't watch out of spite. Instead of proving some point, watching the cameras back it just made Chell chuckle silently.) Tranquil, calm, and familiar.

And then something strange happened.

After watching wheat for a total of 34 hours, GLaDOS had a pretty good idea of how it moved naturally. And it was not like that. It bent and swayed in bizarre ways, and eventually, GLaDOS saw why.

Two tanned, skinny men emerged from the tall grass behind her. Chell didn't seem to notice them and GLaDOS watched them carefully. They crept closer to Chell slowly. GLaDOS realized for the first time that entrance_04 was one of the only cameras that wasn't attached to the PA system.

Then one grabbed Chell's arms. Chell jumped and squirmed. The other man stepped in front of her and without hesitation she kicked him brutally in the shin. He yowled with pain for just a moment, while the first man pushed her roughly to the ground, pressing his knee into her back and arms uncomfortably high above her head. She squirmed relentlessly.

"Hey," The man now resentfully rubbing his leg said. Chell ignored him. "Hey!" He hollered, grabbing her chin forcefully, squeezing so that she couldn't pull away.

"What're you doin' out here, Delli?" He asked. Immediately Chell released who they were. 'Delli' was a slur for Ordellians. The only people in this part of the Americas who said that were the Nomads. They resented trying to rebuild society, calling the people who did cowards and only traveled in groups of 1-4. She'd been warned about them. They're the reason she always carried a switchblade on her. Right, her knife! It was just in her... pocket...

Dammit.

Chell didn't respond. The man grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head into the ground.

"C'mon. Didn't your little patriarchy leaders tell y'not to wonder out here?"

_It isn't even patriarchy,_ Chell thought irritably, still struggling

"You got anything for us?"

She didn't say anything. The Nomad hurled her face at the dirt again. Chell felt herself tearing up and figured she had a broken nose.

"Answer me! Come on!" He screamed. Chell writhed away violently. "Doran, search her,"

The other Nomad, Doran, moved to her pockets while the first one went to grab her arms. In the brief moment of interchange, Chell managed to pull her arms out of their grip and jump up. Doran stumbled back and fell and Chell kicked the other one's legs from under him. A million escape plans ran through her head but they all had a common theme. Ordell or The Shed.

Ordell was too far.

Chell threw herself into The Shed. She landed on her stomach, wood floor taking a good amount of skin off her chin.

GLaDOS, who had been- for lack of a better word- scrambling to help Chell, immediately slammed the door shut. Chell huffed and looked around quickly. But The Shed was as empty as ever. She wondered if maybe She could help her but... She closed the door, She obviously wanted to help. What could She do, anyway? Send a turret in the slow, probably unprepared elevator?

No. It was just Chell and her knife, she decided. She pulled out the switchblade and decided she'd have to wait it out as the Nomads started banging on the door.

"Come out, you dirty wimp!" Howled an unfamiliar, more unhinged voice that Chell figured was Doran.

After a few minutes, they stopped slamming on the door and Chell thought maybe they'd left. She tried the door.

GLaDOS could see that they most definitely had not and kept the door firmly shut. Chell took the hint and GLaDOS went back to trying to figure out how She could help.

**_BANG!_ **

The Nomads shot straight through the door. The iron-enforced shed door. This was because the padlock on the outside of the door for some reason overlapped perfectly with the ill-protected locking mechanism of the door.

_Dammit, Aperture_ , Chell just had time to think before pulling out her knife. They kicked open the door. She kicked off and lunged at them with the blade exposed.

**_BANG!_ **

A second gunshot.

The Nomads shot straight through Chell.

She landed on the floor with a dull thud.

The thugs pulled her out into the light and searched her, finding nothing but a few empty sheets of paper and a pen. The first Nomad took her knife and pocketed it, and the two skinny men walked into the shed curiously.

GLaDOS watched them search her, then toss her aside. Every part of Her was silent and every part of Her was screaming. She watched them as they leaned over the hole.

"Whaddya think this is?" The first asked. Doran shrugged.

They heard the grinding of gears, the sound of something being used for the first time after over a year of neglect. They jumped back for a second, then leaned even farther over it. The grinding stopped.

The vacuum started.

The two were sucked over the edge and down the tube. They then crashed through the glass ceiling of the elevator half-way down.

Once the two regained consciousness, they saw the elevator was slowing to a stop in a large, circular room. Something was dangling in the middle. Something big and white and radiating poorly compressed anger.

"You two have made a horrible, horrible mistake," it said. The Nomads looked among each other.

"And at the worst possible time, too. I've been running low on human subjects."

"I have some terrifically lethal tests for you two,"

"Don't worry. You won't have a good time,"

**Author's Note:**

> welp there's my capacity for writing angst  
> (you know, none)  
> feedback's appreciated!


End file.
